A dialogue at the New York Times:


"David Brooks: Gail, would you mind if I praised Barack Obama today? I thought not. I'm feeling grateful to the prez these days because we happen to be in the middle of a bunch of midsized crises. There's the oil spill in the Gulf (which is verging on a big crisis, I guess). There's the Times Square bomber. There are various floods in Tennessee and elsewhere. The European Union is falling apart over the Greek debt crisis, and so on and so on.

It's good to have a president with equipoise.
It seems to me that Obama is handling his role, which ranges from the marginal to the significant, in these events with calm professionalism. He's active yet not annoying. He's not taking credit for everything. He's not creating friction by making any missteps. He is calm, cool and collected.

Gail Collins: Please, feel free to applaud the president as much as you like. But I'm sorry I can't return the favor when it comes to the Republicans. All we're hearing is carping or sullen silence. And there's John McCain, complaining again about giving the alleged Times Square bomber his Miranda rights. (Nothing worse than handling a prisoner in a way that will make it possible to take him to trial.) And while it's not exactly in the same category with Rush Limbaugh's claim that the administration wanted a big oil spill, I was kind of bemused by the House minority leader, John Boehner, who seems to be claiming that a monster spill demonstrates our need for more offshore drilling.

David Brooks: Sometimes people fault Obama for being too cool. I can see their point 5 percent of the time, but 95 percent of the time, it's good to have a president with equipoise. Times like this — with stuff bubbling in all directions — are typical.

This is why people elected him over McCain.
Gail Collins: Well, this is why people elected him. When the economy collapsed they looked at him and McCain and decided in about three seconds which one they wanted running the show in a crisis.

David Brooks: When the oil thing blew, he mobilized what he could, he delegated authority, especially to the Coast Guard, and he reminded the world that even amid disasters like this, we still need a variety of energy sources.

Gail Collins: Certainly true, but I suspect we won't be hearing a whole lot of "drill, baby, drill" in the near future.

David Brooks: It took a long time to get to the point when we stopped debating which energy source was best and started agreeing that we need a lot of different sources. The debate went from "x or y" to "x and y." We could have lost that near-consensus, but Obama kept his head, while still putting pressure on BP. Those are small acts of statesmanship, but valuable ones.

I especially appreciate this because I have never been able to assign moral value to different energy sources. "